SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 29 (UPI) -- Another cleanup project has been approved for an old uranium mine on the Navajo Nation reservation in New Mexico, the Environmental Protection Agency said.
The multiyear plan calls for approximately 1.4 million tons of contaminated soil to be secured in a lined pit at the Northeast Church Rock Mine, which the EPA called the "the largest and highest priority uranium mine on the Navajo Nation."
"This is an important milestone in the effort to address the toxic legacy of historic uranium mining on the Navajo Nation," Jared Blumenfeld, administrator for the EPA's Pacific Southwest Region in San Francisco, said in a written statement Thursday.
The mine is considered to be contaminated with both uranium and radium that piled up around the mine while it was in operation from 1967 to 1982. The radioactive waste poses the risk of bone cancer, anemia and cataracts, the EPA said.
Two previous cleanup projects took place at the site in recent years, including the removal of 40,000 tons of soil last year.
